1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the art of wound healing and in particular to management of the inflammatory response subsequent to laceration, elective incision, or impact trauma.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,989 describes a tissue pulsator capable of operating on an area to be treated with a tapping action. When applied to readily palpable tissue, the tapping action produces a pulsating motion in the tissue causing contraction and relaxation of the tissue at frequencies of about 5,000 cycles per minute. A beneficial result is an improved circulation, and a relaxation of tense and contracted tissues. In addition, the function of tissues injured by fractures, surgery, or trauma is restored usually after the healing process is established. Additional uses include low back strain or sprain, tendinitis, rotator cuff lesions, post-fracture edema and stiffness, and psychogenic rheumatism. The tissue pulsator operates in a plane perpendicular to the tissue surface.
A method and apparatus for treatment of organic structures and systems using ultrasonic energy is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,499,437, wherein coherent wave energy is rapidly anticipated into thermal energy or heat and creates effects mainly due to temperature rise in the underlying hard or soft tissues. Typically, the dosage of energy is necessarily low so as to not damage the treated tissue due to extremes in temperature. Claimed therapeutic applications include increased blood circulation in a given area and more rapid healing of wounds through a so-called micromassage, which micromassage is a periodic compression and extension (or push and pull, pressure and tension) resulting from compressional waves. Other mechanical effects of coherent wave energy include microstreaming or a kind of vibrational pumping causing fluids in organic structures to undergo local circulations which are not ordinarily present. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,499,439, it is believed that the microstreaming effects affect the permeability of cell membranes to promote interchange of substances across those cell membrane boundaries.
Another example of the medical application of energy waves in the form of ultrasound is the kidney stone lithotripter manufactured by Dornier GmbH of the Federal Republic of Germany. In the case of the lithotripter, kidney and gallstones are fragmented without open surgery through the external application of a coherent ultrasound source directed to a point in the patient's body occupied by the kidney or gallstone.
The present invention contemplates a new method which obtains results heretofore not thought possible using the above referred to apparatus and further contemplates a method to provide a simple and safe approach to expediting the overall wound healing process.